733667-001-005-0003

OTHER

AI Summary

This document details an incident involving unidentified air traffic observed by the crew of JAL flight 1628 on November 17, 1987, as they approached Anchorage, Alaska. The crew reported seeing strange lights that changed position and were confirmed on radar by air traffic control.

Key Findings

- JAL flight 1628 observed strange lights ahead of their aircraft. - The lights changed position and were visible for approximately 10 minutes. - The crew reported the lights were yellow, amber, and green, with no red. - The lights were confirmed on radar by both the crew and ARTCC. - The aircraft's navigational systems showed no apparent problems, except for static in the VHF receiver.

OCR Text

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION AIR TRANSPORTATION SECURITY On November 17, I responded to a call from the ROC reference an incident involving unidentified air traffic (UAT) following JAL flight 1628 into Anchorage. I asked Agent Mickle to meet me at Anchorage Airport. Upon arriving at ANC, I met Agent Mickle and Inspector Wright (FSDO-63) who had been at the aircraft. All three of us then vro- ceded to JAL operations to interview the crew. At JAL Operations we met with Captain Terauchi, lst Officer Tamefuji, and 2nd Officer Tsukuda along with Mr. Shimbashi, the JAL Operations Manager at Anchorage. The three crewmen stated that just after passing POTAT inter- section inbound to Anchorage on J529 they observed strange lights ahead of their B-747. These lights changed position after 2 minutes but remained in front of the A/C for another 10 minutes, then moved to the left side of the A/C. They stated that all they could see were the lights and at no time could they see any craft. However, they did show an object on their WX radar at about 7 miles. The lights were yellow, amber, and green, but no red. The lights were in two seperate sets which changed position relative to one another. The crew said that they contacted ARTCC confirmed that they also had it on radar. Near Fairbanks, the crew executed a 360° turn and the lights stayed with them off of their left side. They then proceded to Anchorage the lights were still visible until around 40 miles north of they moved away to the east. The crew reported their speed as 0.84 Mach and their altitude between FL390 and 310 as assigned along the route. The only problem noted with their systems was same static in the VHF receiver. The Navigational system in use was INS with no apparent problems. Upon campletion of my discussion with the crew, I called Captain Stevens (Duty Officer to NORAD) and asked if he had any question other than what I had asked. He said he had no other questions, but they also showed two targets on radar (one was JAL). He stated that they would give all data to Intelligence in the morning. I then asked Bobby Lamkin by phone if AF was holding the data and he said yes. INTERVIEWED/REVIEWED ON ember 17, 1987 at Anchorage, Alaska —>— =<—_ —_ =_—_->-_—_—auvi—_ _a_ <-- =_,- —_—_V—_i —<_o —_— ae ee —— eee eee py Special Agents”James Derry FILENO. = st FAA Form 1600-32¢] (2-73) FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. (Public availability to be de— GPO 042-084 termined under 5 U. S. C. 552)

Metadata

Agency
—
Classification
UNCLASSIFIED
Department
National Archives and Records Administration
Confidence85
Credibility90

NARA Source

NAID
733667
File
733667-001-005-0003.jpg
Type
image/jpeg

No machine-readable OCR text for this asset. Photographs without captions may have no extractable text.

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